The first place I start with clients and in my programs
is with values.

The intention of values is to provide both a foundation and an anchor for all of your business decisions.

The values that I center in my business are
integrity, accountability, authenticity and sovereignty.

They are rooted in an Intersectional Feminist, justice-informed praxis and under-pin all of my business decisions, relationships, projects and products.

Integrity

Integrity is defined as “a state of being whole and undivided.” In business, I believe that integrity reflects doing what you say in congruence with what you stand for. Sometimes this means having uncomfortable conversations, sometimes this means upholding a boundary which then negates having a conversation. The means by which I uphold integrity is through feeling in moral congruence with myself. That may mean that a decision I make or a stance I take does not reflect your own values or beliefs. I am more committed to feeling ethically aligned with my actions than being in agreement with others. Every action made by myself and my team has been carefully considered to be in integrity for us.

Accountability

As an imperfect human in an imperfect society, I cannot guarantee that I will never cause harm. As a white, cis-gender, disabled queer person, I make an attempt to reflect critically on my privilege and actively pursue education and study that supports my ability to be a facilitator for people from all walks of life. However, in circumstances where I may cause harm due to my privilege, I value accountability in place of safety. The groups I create are often diverse, and due to either privilege or trauma, there have been circumstances where microaggressions and misunderstandings have taken place both between participants and between myself and a client. Accountability means we will have a conversation, and ramifications will be taken to ensure repair. This applies specifically to my clients and program participants. Not strangers on the internet that I do not know.

Authenticity

Part of the world I hope to co-create with my clients is one where diversity of thought and expression are celebrated. As a sex-positive, queer, polyamorous, radical feminist I do not sanction parts of my self-expression to be palatable or “professional” by conventional standards. My business exists to deconstruct conventional standards, and also to elevate them. As such, my public platforms are both professional teaching spaces and reflections of who I am as a person. They include my personal opinions, shares from my life, and an unfiltered view of who I am. If that is something that makes others uncomfortable, they shouldn’t hire me. Authenticity is an intentional choice and a large part of having a business online.

Sovereignty

As a collaborator and thought partner with my clients, I maintain that they are always the best authority on their own lives and businesses. Every assignment I give or piece of feedback I deliver is an invitation. I trust my clients to run what I say through their own internal system of discernment and critically judge whether it is for them or not. As coach or consultant, I am essentially a hired contractor. To presume to know better than my clients about their own lives can result in a hierarchy that is unhealthy for the clients’ goals and creates codependency in the coaching relationship that I reject. Yes, I have a skillset that you may not, and a lot of insight that will help to guide you…but you are the one who will live the impact of the changes you make in our work together, and I want to protect your authority in that over even you getting results.

What you can expect from me

If you are not a 1:1 client or in my mastermind Radical Leaders Collective, you do not get access to direct support from me via email/text or DM. For those of you in my courses, there are designated times for office hours, as well as spaces where you are instructed to post your questions. Because of the large nature of my client base, I do not have the time to provide direct support to people outside of the designated spaces that my team and I lay out for you at the beginning of working with us. If you have a question, the best person to ask it to is my assistant, who can be reached at assistant@carakovacs.com.

Additionally, my assistant and I are real people who are responsible for all of the systems you interact with in this business from the emails you receive to the courses you consume. We are imperfect, neither of us is a computer programmer or graphic designer, and we prioritize delivering value over perfection. Sometimes there are typos, or an email is sent to the wrong segment or with the wrong link. We do our best to catch and rectify these errors as soon as we are aware of them.

People who are rude, threatening, unkind or disrespectful to myself or my assistant, particularly when we are respectful but may not be responding with the answer that you want can expect to be removed from our list. We reserve the right to stop responding to people who are threatening to us.

Social Media/Podcast/
Free Classes

I teach online largely as a means of providing free information to people who have not or will not buy services. This is a client acquisition/visibility/credibility strategy, but I also enjoy it very much. Sharing online leaves you open to critical feedback. It also leaves you open to projections that may or may not be true.

Because I have limited time/energy and wish to dedicate my relational energy to clients and loved ones, I do not engage with feedback from people online, with the exception of when I have erred in such a way that multiple people are calling me in about a particular statement. In other words, I do not respond to DMs, comments, or emails with critical feedback from strangers who do not know me.

Additionally, though my intention is that people enjoy and get value from the things I teach and share, part of scaling a business in front of an audience of strangers is learning to release the fact that some people will not resonate with my work. That is fine with me, but I don’t engage in conversations about it with people who have decided what I do is not for them. I hope they find someone they resonate with instead and focus on supporting those who are learning from me.

Large Group Programs

Our refund policy is simple–we do not provide refunds. We ask people to purchase with love and intention. We are a small business and we do not have our systems built to refund people without having to pay fees for this. It costs us money to refund you. Additionally, because we sell services and educational materials, not products, we stand by the quality and intentionality of what you receive from us. Choosing not to use it, open it, continue it, finish it, or need it any more because you have changed your mind about something (be it that you don’t love my methodology or you are no longer pursuing your business) is not grounds for a refund. 

Under limited circumstances we have offered refunds for people who experienced a life threatening health emergency and were no longer able to complete our programming, or had a tragic loss in their families which resulted in the same. Otherwise, we do not do refunds. Period.

This business exists to help support radical business owners in helping to co-create the kind of value-driven businesses that can reshape our culture. Because of this, we view business as both political and personal.

I use my platform to amplify causes that feel in integrity for me to be sharing about. I am not a journalist, politician, or analyst and therefore I do my best to avoid speaking about things that are outside of my area of expertise. However, when it comes to protecting human rights the stance I take is that as a human, using my voice to support these causes is what is most in integrity for my values. I share on my Instagram, and occasionally my newsletter, about causes I want to amplify. I do not speak or share about these things until I feel confident that what I am sharing is rooted in fact and has been verified before resharing.

Activism and Politics

Refunds